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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the United Kingdom is prepared to apologise for its role in the transatlantic slave trade but has explicitly ruled out reparations, drawing a sharp response from Caribbean nations who say an apology without financial repair is incomplete.
Burnham set out his position in an opinion article published in The Guardian on Friday, writing: “I want to express my sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions of people, and to recognise the way it still shapes our world today.” The statement was timed to coincide with the opening of a four-day Commonwealth summit in St John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, where King Charles is hosting leaders of more than 50 member states.
In the same article, Burnham said Britain would work on debt restructuring for the poorest countries, with former Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown — who led the UK’s 1991 initiative to reduce debt for poorer nations — taking a leading role. The prime minister framed the offer in explicitly strategic terms, writing that “in an increasingly divided and dangerous world, our family of nations in the Commonwealth is vital to our interests” and that Britain “can seize opportunities for trade and economic collaboration.”
On reparations, Burnham was unambiguous. “I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part,” he wrote, offering instead what he described as “a structured dialogue” with affected nations.
Scale of Britain’s involvement
Britain transported 3.1 million Africans to its colonies in the Caribbean, the Americas and elsewhere, according to its national archives; only 2.7 million survived the crossing. Together with Portugal, Britain accounted for roughly 70 percent of all Africans exported to the Americas during the trade, which lasted from the 16th to the 19th century. Parliament banned new enslavement in 1807 and abolished the practice entirely in 1834, though it continued for several years thereafter. In 2006, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed “deep sorrow” but stopped short of a formal apology or any discussion of reparations.
Caribbean and African leaders push back
Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip J Pierre, the current chair of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), rejected the argument that present-day Britain bears no responsibility. “Reparatory justice has never been about individual guilt. It is about the responsibility of states and institutions — and that responsibility does not expire with the passing of generations,” he said in a statement, calling Burnham’s apology “incomplete” without repair.
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said he welcomed the statement “with caution” and reiterated calls for a formal apology, targeted investments and an international commitment to dismantle systemic racism. Denis O’Brien, founder of the advocacy group The Repair Campaign, said London “must stop obfuscating and give a full and formal apology now.”
CARICOM has since 2013 demanded that Western nations acknowledge their role and pay monetary reparations. Those calls intensified after Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley unveiled a 19-point manifesto in June at a conference in Ghana, calling for full formal apologies, monetary compensation from both governments and institutions — including corporations and churches — as well as technology transfer, healthcare funding and debt relief. The plan updated an earlier CARICOM 10-point programme.
Ghana also helped push a resolution through the United Nations in March that saw 123 countries vote to declare the trafficking of enslaved Africans the gravest crime against humanity. All European nations abstained; the United States, Israel and Argentina voted against.
Domestic opposition
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed Burnham’s move as “navel-gazing” in a post on X, arguing that “there is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born.” She also questioned whether descendants of African rulers who participated in the trade would face similar demands. “Labour are already spending too much on Britain’s welfare state, now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare,” she said.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations, welcomed Burnham’s steps but said action remained “lacking.”
Where other countries stand
France recognised slavery as a crime against humanity in 2001, and President Emmanuel Macron said in May that Paris should examine reparations, without making concrete proposals. The Netherlands apologised for its role in 2022. The Church of England, whose clergy also owned enslaved people, established a £100 million ($134 million) fund for affected communities and further research into slavery’s legacies.
Burnham’s statement was made during Britain’s Black History Month, adding symbolic weight to the timing, though Caribbean leaders made clear that symbolism alone would not satisfy demands that have been building for more than a decade.